


Violons Sont des Conneries

by pickwicklingpapers



Series: Cophine AUs [4]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Orchestra, F/F, M/M, cophine - Freeform, orchestra AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 07:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4737170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickwicklingpapers/pseuds/pickwicklingpapers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“you’re leader of the orchestra and I hate it” au</p>
            </blockquote>





	Violons Sont des Conneries

**Author's Note:**

> this is for everybody who yelled at me after the last two. sorry guys. and especially for thetravelingkid who gave me the prompt. i don't know if it's any good though - i'm obviously not as talented when i'm not killing anyone.

Cosima was the first flute of London Symphony Orchestra. And she was good. She excelled at piccolo, alto and bass and had one of the highest rated solo flute albums of all time. She’d done jazz grades, she’d done classical grades. She had a highly paid job at a well-regarded orchestra. Her playing could be heard on multiple film scores. Her compositions were a staple part of the flute repertoire. Her fingers were nimble. She could sight read like no one else.

And here she sat, coffee in hand, reduced to glaring at the first violins putting their instruments away.

To be more precise, the first violin. Leader of the orchestra. Leader of the fucking orchestra with no fucking reason other than the seat in which she sat. The girl rocked up from France, auditioned, and immediately became leader. Personal applause and everything.  Not awesome. She gritted her teeth and forced her flute apart violently.

Her second, Felix, looked over at the sharp clang. “Careful, darling.” He whispered, leaning over “Your crush is showing.”

“Fuck off, Felix.” She snapped. “Just because you can’t get over Tony doesn’t mean that everybody’s repressing their feelings.”

“Ooh, tetchy.” He smiled and nudged her. “Come on, wipe the frown off of that disgusting face of yours. The guest conductor’s about to leave. Let’s go chat. How long do your reckon it’ll take for me to get him to sleep with me?”

Cosima went back to glaring as Felix sashayed away. Why did the new girl get to be the star of the show, with her adorable face and beautiful blonde curls. Like sure, she had to be good to get the position, but why did that mean that she got to lead the orchestra? Why did she get to tell them all to tune – surely that should fall to the oboes? They played the note, didn’t they? Why did she get her hand shaken at the end of the concert? Why did all the string leaders? Where the rest of the orchestra just not good enough? What was so good about the violin anyway – solo violins just sounded like cats being murdered with a rusty saw. At least over-eager Alison, cello extraordinaire and suck-up, had a decent sounding instrument.

And yeah, she’d heard of the famed Delphine Cormier, formerly of the Paris Conservatoire and the Vienna Philharmonic. Child prodigy. Musical genius. She knew that logically she deserved the attention. It was just… _violins_. She grumbled to herself, threw her cup in the bin, and went to watch Felix seduce a man.

\------------

“Madame Cormier?”

 Delphine looked up from her instrument to see a stern looking woman with severe hair looking down at her. “Oui?”

“Rachel Duncan. Musical director.” She held out a hand. Her voice was enunciated, clipped. “I’m here to show you around.”

“Enchanté.” Delphine replied, standing up and shaking the offered hand. “I would enjoy that very much. This is my first rehearsal and I haven’t really had a chance to meet anybody yet. My desk partner seems, um, bitter.”

“Yes, Aldous was a little disgruntled at being passed over for the position,” Rachel said, studying her nails. “But the fact remains: your audition was better. To have elected him would have been irresponsible. And irresponsibility is unforgivable. He will have to learn to live with it.”

Half an hour later, Delphine had smiled her way around the majority of the orchestra, shaking hands and echoing greetings. Detangling herself from one of the most lecherous trumpet players that she’d ever encountered, she followed Rachel towards two players deep in conversation just in time to hear the end of it.

“Don’t go there Cos!” the taller man said, “He’s hot and I’m down with it. He’s better looking than Teddy, anyhow.” The girl tried to interrupt, only to be cut off. “And stop talking about Tony. I’m over him, and you can stop with the ‘love’ shit. Don’t pretend like you didn’t date Shay for five years just for the sex.”

Rachel interrupted with a stern cough. “Cosima. Felix.” She nodded. Turning to Delphine, she said “This is the flute section. They’re the… _gay_ ones.”

The dreadlocked woman adjusted her glasses and shot Rachel a look. “Mm, yeah, my sexuality’s not the most interesting thing about me.” She held out a hand, completely dismissing Duncan. “Cosima. First flute. And this is Felix.”

“And you can piss off, Rachel.” Felix said. “We’re not your lab rats.” He turned and smiled at the French woman. “Delphine.”

Delphine smiled back as Rachel stalked away . “Hello Felix.” She looked to Cosima. “And you are Cosima Niehaus? You won the Forte International when you were 17, non? I admire your work.”

Cosima blushed. “Well, um, enchanté. You're amazing too, you know. And thank you – it did take me a while to find a competition that wasn’t just for piano or strings.”

“Yes, we violins tend to overtake everything, do we not?”

Felix looked from one to the other and clapped his hands. “Right, well, sorry to interrupt this Sappho-fest, but I must be off. I have to see a man about a thing.” He paused at the door, shouting back across the near-empty concert hall. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

  
\---------------------

“So you’ve never smoked weed?”

They were curled up on the audience seats, drinking coffee. The hall was deserted, silent apart from the sounds of Delphine’s laughter.

“Non, non  – I was the good child.” Delphine said. “My parents made me practice all the time, and it was understood that any bad behaviour could jeopardise my future career.” Delphine blushed. “I have never really been drunk before, even.” She smiled. “My little brother though, he was the cheeky one. Like you, I think.”

“Fuck they’re strict in France.” She grabbed Delphine’s hand and started tugging her towards the exit. “Come on – I‘m gonna get you high.”

\--------------

“So what’s with the hatred of violins?” Delphine asked, taking another drag of the cigarette.

Cosima accepted it from her as she shrugged into the sofa. “I guess it just stems from the time when my conductor forgot to give the woodwind applause.”

Delphine gasped “Non…”

“Oh yeah.” Cosima nodded, “Total scandal. It was the state orchestra that I played for in high school. We’d just done Tchaikovsky’s Pathetiqué, and he got every single section to stand up for separate applause. It was the first real symphony that we’d done all the way through." She paused. "But he forgot the woodwind. Even the percussion got their own – but not us.”

Delphine leaned back onto the pillows. “That’s terrible!”

“Oh, that’s not the worst bit. The worst bit was the old woman that fell asleep.”

Delphine giggled. “Mon dieu! Were you bad?”

“Bad? No! It was the best we’d ever played. Four movements was just too much for the poor woman.” She laughed. “And then the next concert came round and we played Scherezade. I mean, fair enough that the leader got her own applause – she’d played the solos and shit – but the strings got their own applause and handshakes whilst the rest of the orchestra got lumped together.” She leaned back into Delphine’s arms, slowly exhaling smoke. “Violins are bullshit.”

\-----------------------

Hours later, stretched out naked and panting in bed, Delphine turned in to her partner. “You know," she said matter-of-factly, "I’ve never been with a woman before.”

“Yeah?” murmured Cosima sleepily. “Well it showed.”

**Author's Note:**

> Q: THERE'S SIX VIOLINS IN A MINIBUS AND IT GOES OVER A CLIFF. WHAT'S THE REAL TRAGEDY?  
> A: THE MINIBUS FITS EIGHT.
> 
> that orchestra story's true.
> 
> sorry to all the violin players, but we had this convo last night at orchestra and i had to. (and do you have any idea how hard it is to find music competitions that aren't piano and strings specific? i automatically went for bbc young musician, but then i remembered that cos's american so)


End file.
